On Monday, CVS announced there will be a change in their photos. The drugstore company announced that they will be gearing towards having photos that are not altered.

This initiative is called CVS Beauty Mark, according to a press release entitled CVS Pharmacy Makes Commitment Creates New Standards for Post-Production Alterations of Beauty Imagery. CVS Watermark, the press release says, is a “watermark that will be used to highlight imagery that has not been materially altered.” The definition of materially altered, according to the press release is any “materially altered is defined as changing or enhancing a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics.”

The pharmacy, the press release says, will work together with key brand partners and industry experts to “specific guidelines in an effort to ensure consistency and transparency.”

According to the press release, the CVS Beauty Mark start to appear in all CVS-pharmacy produced beauty imagery in 2018 — with a goal of all beauty images bearing the mark by 2020.

This initiative is a huge step forward in the campaign for self love. For many years, the beauty industry is one that is compiled of the superficial imagery that is nearly impossible to achieve.

One of the ways that this is done is through retouching images digitally by using programs such as Photoshop. Photoshop can do a number of things to alter your appearance — remove blemishes, make someone appear thinner than they really are, and reduce wrinkles. And, when someone sees this image — whether you are a teenager, millennial, middle aged and elderly — it sends them the message that they need to appear a certain way in order to be considered beautiful.

Going on from that, that is the message that is sent from fashion magazines and advertisers. That message? That beauty is uniform, and any blemish or imperfection is forbidden if you want to be accepted in society.

However, that is untrue. No matter what size, color, or age you, I believe that a woman is beautiful and human. And, not every person is perfect. Everyone gets acne from time to time. Not everyone can be a size zero, and that’s okay. And, a woman has a ton of imperfections — from wrinkles to birthmarks.

Those imperfections should be applauded and celebrated — not covered up.

Kudos to CVS for being the pioneer in this initiative. I’m hoping that Photoshopping Images to better one’s appearance soon becomes a thing of the past. But, while that’s a long time away, I believe that this is a pretty good start.